Why you should get rid of your cable or satellite service right now

And by the way, it’s not about making money, it’s about taking money. Destroying the status quo because the status is not quo. The world is a mess and I just… need to rule it.
~Dr. Horrible, “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog”

I got an email from the owner of my apartment complex today.

“Hi All,

I just wanted to email you to remind you to use the network responsibly.

Monday I received a notice from [internet provider] of a copyright violation for downloading an episode of Top Chefs via torrent. Relatively harmless, but illegal none the less. Today I had to permanently block access to our network by that user. It’s unfortunate, but we have zero wiggle room on this from [internet provider]. They will cancel our connection if it continues. They also have zero wiggle room as they received a notice from NBC Corporate Legal Department. So it’s top down enforcement and they take it very seriously. We need to also.

So apparently NBC has nothing better to do than waste time and money on hunting down someone who got bored and couldn’t find the exact episode of Top Chef they wanted through legal means. I’m not mad at the complex or the internet provider. It wasn’t their decision to start this shit. It was NBC’s.

If you get as pissed off about this shit as I do, quit supporting these bastards. Fuck them where it hurts. Get rid of the cable, get rid of the satellite. Save yourself the fucking money. “It’s cheaper, though, if I get the internet/cable bundle!” No, it’s not. I haven’t met a service yet that offered internet and cable, or internet and phone, or cable and phone, or cable, internet, and phone, for less than I can get just internet. Don’t let them get you that way. It’s a scam.

Just kill the paid-for TV. They don’t listen to you anyway. They’re not interested in offering good, quality entertainment. They’re only interested in how much fucking money they can get from advertising. And the advertisers are only interested in how much money they can wrangle out of you.

So do yourself a favor and just ditch it. Support only the media that finds a way to work with the new era of distribution and ditches the old regime of “sue ’em and scare ’em.” And by the way, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog is on YouTube. It hasn’t been taken down and somehow I don’t think it will. I highly recommend watching it and buying the DVD. One day I will own the DVD and I will watch Commentary! The Musical and it will be glorious.